The first major free-agent signing of the off-season, the St. Louis Cardinals' acquisition of shortstop Jhonny Peralta, has exposed still-open wounds in Major League Baseball on the topic of performance-enhancing drugs. Peralta was among 12 players who accepted 50-game suspensions after evidence linking him to the use of banned substances surfaced during baseball's investigation of a closed South Florida anti-aging clinic. Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun received a 65-game suspension for his connection to that case.

In the fitfully moving "Sugar," director Rotimi Rainwater translates to the big screen his own nine months of living on the streets. Opening during Homeless Youth Awareness Month, his snapshot of teenage boardwalk-dwellers eking out an existence on Venice Beach is more successful as an instructive tool than as a narrative feature. Shenae Grimes stars as Sugar, the sole girl in a makeshift family of down-and-out teens, which includes her Mormon-runaway boyfriend (Marshall Allman) and a 13-year-old foster kid (Austin Williams)

These are the games where all heads normally turn to Kobe Bryant. Regardless of title - opponent, teammate, fan or hater - everyone in attendance anticipates Bryant's time in the crunch for the Lakers, successful or not. But without him, you get a game like Friday's between the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies, and a score that didn't favor the home team at Staples Center. GAME SUMMARY: Grizzlies 89, Lakers 86 Zach Randolph was the man on the spot and he delivered with several late plays to push Memphis to an 89-86 victory.

+ A key to the early success of the Phoenix Coyotes (10-3-2) is the production they are getting from their defense. Oliver Ekman-Larsson (three goals, 11 points), Keith Yandle (1-10 - 11) and Derek Morris (4-6 - 10) ranked 4-5-6 in defensemen scoring through Sunday's games. + Welcome back Manny Malhotra, who returned to the NHL last Friday with the Carolina Hurricanes. The classy forward suffered a devastating eye injury in 2011 while with the Vancouver Canucks; fearing his impaired vision jeopardized his safety, they played him in only nine games last season and didn't re-sign him. He won 15 of 20 faceoffs in his first game back and 10 of 14 in his second.

When Robert Rizzo pleaded no contest to corruption charges last month, many of the trappings of his former life as Bell's highly paid city manager were gone: the house near the ocean in Huntington Beach, the horse farm outside Seattle, the stable of racehorses. But Rizzo still has two lucrative streams of money from his days in local government that neither Bell nor prosecutors can touch: his 401(k)-style retirement account that once held more than $1 million and an annual pension of $116,628.

An unabashed love letter to all things motorcycle, the documentary "Why We Ride" will surely warm the souls of bike enthusiasts while prompting many nonriders to join the fold. It could in fact be one of the best movies-as-sales-tools to speed down the pike in some time. Director Bryan H. Carroll, with an invaluable assist from cinematographers Andrew Waruszewski and Douglas Cheney, takes an all-embracing look at motorbiking (including a nice bit of history on the subject) enhanced by testimony from a wide array of its enthusiasts - men and women, young and old, able and disabled, hobbyists and record-holders.

October 31, 2013 | By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

"The Returned," a deep, mysterious and remarkable new series that begins Halloween night on Sundance Channel, is being pitched as having something to do with zombies. And to the extent that several of its characters are dead and yet moving among the living, I suppose that it does. But they are also living with the living, and talking with them, and eating with them (and not eating them), and even sleeping with them. (Though they do not sleep.) They are very much as they were when they checked out and, except for a blank spot surrounding their demise, reappear with their memories, faculties and human feelings intact.

BOSTON - The link between Boston Red Sox Manager John Farrell and former boss Terry Francona remains strong, although there has been less dialogue between them during the World Series. "We talked more probably in the division and Championship Series," Farrell said Wednesday night before Game 6 against the St. Louis Cardinals. "We already reach out to one another, either in a brief text [message] or an occasional phone call when you have a chance to ask him some questions.

Apple Inc. has hired Burberry Chief Executive Angela Ahrendts to run its retail division, hoping her background melding technology, fashion and commerce will be the right mix to navigate the future of the stores that have been a cornerstone of its success. Although not a household name in the U.S., Ahrendts is a superstar in Britain because she led a turnaround of the revered but aging retail chain. The Midwestern native was the highest-paid CEO in Britain, where her leadership and tech savvy combined with her status as a rare female running a public company have drawn comparisons to Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer.

SEATTLE - Not long after Joe Bell's teenage son killed himself, the 48-year-old with two fake knees set out to walk from Oregon to New York City so he could spread the word about the child he loved, about the evils of bullying, about parents' responsibility. Bell figured it would take two years to complete his planned 5,000-mile trek, his memorial to son Jadin, with a message about loving gay children and holding bullies to higher standards. "If he could save one child's life," family friend Bud Hill said Monday in a telephone interview, "it would be worth it to him. " Bell may not have saved a life on his walk across America.